The author, Jean-Henri Jaume Saint-Hilaire,1772-1845, was born in Grasse in the south of France, an agriculturally rich region famous for its fruit trees and flowers. At an early age he served in the military but left it for a career in agriculture and the natural sciences. He wrote several illustrated volumes describing trees and plants of agricultural importance and discovered Polygonum tinctorium, a plant that produces an indigo blue dye.